Annual Carnaval Miami Cooking Contest Now Accepting Recipe Submissions for Cooking Competition 2/26/13
Annual Carnaval Miami Cooking Contest Now Accepting Recipe Submissions for Cooking Competition
Tuesday, 02/26/2013, 06:00 pm – 07:30 pm
Winn-Dixie Store 292
1630 West 49th Street ,
Hialeah, Florida 33012
Webpage Link
The Kiwanis of Little Havana, together with Winn-Dixie stores, invite you to participate in the Annual Carnaval Miami Cooking Contest, one of the most popular food competitions in South Florida, presented by Bounty. Culinary aficionados will have the opportunity to showcase their culinary mastery against other food enthusiasts during a semifinal competition with winners receiving the chance to compete for a $1,000 prize in the final competition at this year’s Annual Carnaval on the Mile Festival on Sat., March 2.
All who wish to be considered for the cooking contest should submit a recipe for eight guests that uses a minimum of five Winn-Dixie Brand products, such as Winn-Dixie butter, spices, etc., no later than 5 p.m. on Wed., Feb. 20 to the:
Kiwanis Club of Little Havana
1400 SW First Street,
Miami, Fla. 33135
By email: alafee@carnavalmiami.com
By fax: (305) 644-8693
Contest participants will be selected based on creativity by a panel of judges and notified if they are chosen to participate. The semifinal competition will award cash prizes to the top three winners, as well as a $25 gift card to the remaining participants.
Semifinal cooking competition
Tues., Feb. 26, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Winn-Dixie Store 292
1630 West 49th Street
Hialeah, Fla.
For more information, please visit www.carnavalmiami.com/cookingcontest, www.facebook.com/CarnavalMiami or call (305) 644-8888.
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The Epic Hotel
When the words “pastry” and “Miami” come together, the first thought that usually comes to mind for locals and tourists, alike, is Cuban pastry – those little geometric shapes of crispy, lardy, flakiness most famously filled with guava paste and/or cream cheese.  Cuban culture and cuisine have come to be almost synonymous with Miami culture, and apart from the plethora of Cuban bakeries on almost every corner in western Miami, practically every supermarket in South Florida carries pastelitos and croqueticas.  However, after having moved to North Miami Beach and then bouncing around different neighborhoods in the northeastern part of Dade County, I discovered that Cuban pastries are not as prevalent in this part of the Magic City as they might be in Hialeah, Little Havana, Kendall, or Coral Gables.  Whereas Español might be the language of choice in those neighborhoods, Kreyòl is the lingua franca in places like North Miami, North Miami Beach, Miami Shores, and Little Haiti where it’s easier to find a place to grab a box of griot (spicy fried pork chunks) and a Choucoune (champagne cola)  than it is to find a Cuban sandwich and a cafecito.  Haitian culture is very prominent in northeastern Miami, which means that Spanglish phrases widely accepted in other parts of the city are usually met with blank stares (I learned this the hard way), and the chances of finding a fresh guava and cheese pastry can be slim to none.
Discovering Haitian cuisine is a gastronomic revelation for any true foodie.  While the cuisine is unpretentious and simple, the flavors are bold and spicy, oftentimes quite unique, and demonstrate a very African culinary aesthetic paired with a very French sophistication.  One area in which this cross-cultural fusion of techniques and palates can be experienced almost perfectly is in a Haitian patty, which is an anglicization of the Creole word “pate” (pronounced pah-tey) derived from the French word “patisserie”, which simply means pastry.  In form, it more closely resembles a Cuban pastelito than a Jamaican patty.  Like Cuban pastries, Haitian patties consist of delicate, flakey puff pastry surrounding some sort of filling, but the similarities end there.  The main difference between the two pastries is that while Cuban pastries are best known for their sweet fillings, Haitian patties are almost exclusively savory, and even when comparing  savory pastries from both cuisines, Haitian patties are noticeably spicier and have bolder flavors.  The most typical fillings are ground beef, ground chicken, salted cod (bacalao), smoked herring, and ground turkey.  There is also a difference in the crusts between Cuban pastries and Haitian patties.  While Cuban pastries place value on crispiness and have more brittle crusts that are glazed to complement the usually sweet fillings, Haitian patties go unglazed and place emphasis on producing as many impossibly delicate layers as possible.  Like most pastries, Haitian patties are best when they are fresh out of the oven in the morning, making them an ideal choice for a breakfast on the go, especially if you’re one who prefers something savory for breakfast over something sweet.  There are two main shapes to take into account with Haitian patties that usually denote the two most popular fillings: beef patties (and sometimes chicken) are square while cod patties (and sometimes herring) are triangular.
